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I have to question Why? Winchester made 50-110 Express smoothbore rifles, and shot shells for them.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Why destroy a perfectly good original winchester???? I may get flamed from other members….but this just sound blasphemous to me
Unless the rim diameter of the 32-ga shell matches up with the bolt & extractor on a standard Model 1886, you are going to have to alter it as well. That is why I would go with a 50-110 chambered smoothbore. Bore the 38-56 barrel out to .50 caliber, cut the chamber for 50-110, buy the brass, and load your own.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Online
If the .38-56 barrel is expendable, as it sounds like it is, why not rebore to.45-70?
Some random thoughts:
The 32 ga. has a slightly larger rim dia, so the bolt face and extractor will need to be modified.
Some other modifications will be required to the following parts: Carrier, Ctg. Guide, Ctg. Stop, S-hook, lever, loading gate, magazine tube/Ctg. Opening in the frame and possibly the magazine tube itself and the left-hand side of the frame.
Keep in mind that many of the modifications will require tolerances in the +/- .002 range, radiuses and angles are also absolutely critical.
I don’t reload for shotguns, so I don’t have the max OAL data for the 32 ga. but another concern would be to ensure that the 32 ga is not too long for the action. I suspect plastic hulls might be once fired… brass might work.
So, lots of investigation, figuring and careful modifications will be needed. This is not something I personally would attempt without having a “practice” receiver to work out the bugs.
Texas,
A 50-100 in a 86 is the biggest shell that can go through a 86. A 50-110 gun has 9 parts machined to accommodate the bigger shell including the mag tube and some of the parts are machined to there limits to do so. So If the 32 gauge shell is any bigger than a 50-100 there is no chance it will feed in a 86 frame. There has been some pretty good gun smiths try to make a 50-110 out of a standard 86 and have failed to get them to feed. They said if you have a 50-110 and want to see if its a original Winchester 50-110, if it feeds its original. There are probably some out there that can do the work. I’m putting this out there so you understand what you are in for before you turn a 86 into scrap iron.
Good luck, Bob
WACA Life Member--- NRA Life Member---- Cody Firearms member since 1991 Researching the Winchester 1873's
Email: [email protected]
If your going to toy around just to for the sake of it, unless that 86 is in poor to relic condition, I’d just get one of these Jap-Winchester / Browning Re-Pops to make your experimental 32 gauge shotgun. I mean just of the sake of not have to worry about screwing up an original action / parts.
Sounds like a fun “shooter” project either way. Hell, just call Browning / Fabrique Nationale up and have them make a specially ordered 86 in 32 gauge shotgun. Wonder what the bill on that would be? I doubt anyone there could even pull it off.
Sincerely,
Maverick
WACA #8783 - Checkout my Reloading Tool Survey!
https://winchestercollector.org/forum/winchester-research-surveys/winchester-reloading-tool-survey/
There is no choke constriction in the smoothbore Model 1885 or Model 1886 barrels.
Bert
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
As I’ve read through this thread (noteworthy for some very excellent advice and experience), what made most pragmatic sense to me would be take the .38/56 barrel and bore it to .45/70 or .45/90 smoothbore. I would think you could load .45/70 shot shells to perform similarly to 32 ga. shot shells. And you would have saved yourself a whole lot of work!
By the way, .45/110 smoothbore – would these cartridges cycle through the action?
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